Tools & information

Assistance to Palestinians during December storm

12/17/2013

GovXShortDescription

This past weekend (December 11-14), an intense winter storm hit the
region. Israel, Gaza and the West Bank all suffered from severe
infrastructural problems, flooding and other severe, weather-related
events. The IDF and COGAT have worked to provide assistance to civilians
in need wherever possible.​​

Also on Friday, four water pumps, belonging to “Mekorot”, the
Israeli water company, entered the Gaza Strip and are currently being
operated in the cities and towns and of Rafah, Sheikh Reduan and Khan
Younis.

Photo: COGAT

On
Sunday (15 Dec.), the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing was open for the
first time ever for human passage. Sixteen people entered Gaza
including international aid workers and medical patients returning from
treatment in Israel. Two individuals also entered Israel through the
crossing. Additionally, two ambulance transfers took place at the
crossing.

Also on Sunday, large volumes of fuel and supplies entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom including:* 241 tons of cooking gas* 223,000 liters of benzene fuel* 763,000 liters of diesel fuel* Two trucks of emergency supplies donated by the ICRC* 148 trucks of consumer goods.

UNRWA and the World Food Program have been distributing emergency supplies (including food rations) throughout the Gaza Strip.

COGAT remains ready to provide assistance to organizations wishing to transfer aid and supplies to Gaza.

Patients returning to Gaza from treatment in Israel

Fuel supplied to Gaza through Kerem Shalom crossingPhotos: COGAT

The West Bank

Measures
taken by the IDF and COGAT to assist the civilian population and
mitigate damages in the West Bank from the storm include:

Assistance in fixing power outages around the West Bank in cooperation with the Israeli Electrical Company.

On Friday (13 Dec), numerous Palestinians trapped in their cars
around the Migdalim Intersection (Nablus) were rescued by the IDF.

On Saturday (14 Dec), the IDF assisted in an extraction of an
on-duty Palestinian ambulance trapped by weather conditions near the
Jewish community of Ofra.

Also on Saturday, the IDF provided aid in the evacuation of three
pregnant Palestinian women stuck on Road 35 near Hebron, even offering a
helicopter for the evacuation of one of the women who had entered into
labor.

On Sunday (15 Dec), the snow-covered access road to the Nebi-Samuel
village was cleared by IDF vehicles. Soldiers and officers from COGAT's
Jerusalem Periphery District Coordination and Liaison unit distributed
food rations and supplies to the residents.

Assistance to many Palestinians stranded in their cars in the
Ramallah district, as well as the opening of the Courthouse Crossing 24
hours a day in order to allow passage for humanitarian cases.